From Our Bloggy Cousin, Pennsylvania Avenue:Pennsylvania Republican and budget hawk U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey had a somewhat contentious exchange with CNN's Soledad O'Brien Tuesday morning when he cut her off midsentence for what he said was a "factually ridiculous" description of the budget plan he proposed last year.

Citing the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, O'Brien said Toomey's plan from last year would raise taxes for people making under $200,000.

Toomey goes on to say that his plan would be to simplify the tax code, like he proposed in the supercommittee, and "get rid of some of the deductions and loopholes and credits, broaden the base by which we apply taxes but do it at lower rates for everybody.”

O'Brien pushes back that those changes could include lowering child credits or mortgage interest deductions, and that some people say that's bad for the middle class. "Those are all deductions that middle class people rely on and wealthy people don't really rely on," she said.

Toomey says he wants to lower the marginal tax rate and in that the middle class would pay lower taxes.

Starting next month, the Pennsylvania Cable Network will broadcast the proceedings of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to armchair legal analysts and self-styled Johnnie Cochrans of the couch, finally knocking that fourth wall between taxpayers and the state’s highest court.

“My colleagues and I are pleased to open our courtroom to PCN’s statewide audience so they can see how our court operates and follow arguments in cases affecting every citizen of Pennsylvania,” Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said in a statement announcing the high court’s agreement with the public affairs network.

Based in Camp Hill, Cumberland County, PCN reaches more than 3 million homes across Pennsylvania. The network is entirely funded through contributions from Pennsylvania’s cable companies, meaning no taxpayer dollars will be used to broadcast the court’s proceedings, the channel’s president and CEO Brian Lockman said Monday.

Gavel-to-gavel coverage is expected to begin Sept. 13 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Lockman said in a brief interview. The network will use automated cameras and will use existing lighting to broadcast arguments before the high court.

PCN is already broadcasting the proceedings of Pennsylvania’s other state appellate courts. The Commonwealth Court, which hears civil matters and matters relating to state government has been on the air since 2005. The proceedings of the Superior Court, which hears criminal matters, have been broadcast since 1999, Lockman said.

In the majority of cases, viewers will get an unobstructed view of how the court functions. In certain circumstances, such as in a case involving a child, the justices do have the right to turn the cameras off, Lockman said.

“We will be the neutral observer,” Lockman said. “You will see on TV what you would see if you were there in the courtroom.”

To accommodate the cameras, the high court has adopted a new set of operating rules. They include a requirement that all proceedings be recorded for future broadcast in their entirety. However, PCN can decide which session days it will request permission to record – meaning not all session days will necessarily be broadcast.

Proceedings that have been designated as “sealed” will not be covered, and the Supreme Court can limit or terminate coverage when necessary to protect the parties’ rights or to ensure the orderly conduct of the proceedings. Broadcasts will not include conferences between co-counsel or among the justices.

The high court’s rules also stipulate that none of the film, videotape, video discs, still photographs or audio reproductions developed during a proceeding will be admissible as evidence in that proceeding or in subsequent one, the state courts system said in a press release.

Well, Us For Starters. And if we had a grain of commonsense, we'd be over at the Harrisburg Hilton this morning along with other brainy hopefuls gunning for their share of televised riches.

Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

One of television's most enduring game shows brings its caravansary to the Capital City this morning. And we're already seeing Facebook posts from members of Harrisburg's political class who are looking for their moment in the sun.

We'll be heading over a little later this morning to take a gander for The Grownup Paper. Our only regret is that we won't have a chance to meet original Millionaire host Regis Philbin, who has long since moved on to greener pastures.

But before that happens, here's a quick look at the stories making news this Monday morning.

The Pholks At PHEAA ... ... have an extra Phifty Million to pump into phinancial aid to help phiduciarlily challenged students, our Mothership colleague Teagan Hanlon reports this morning. "We've weathered the worst of the economic difficulties that have been affecting the economy and we're financially positioned to return some of our earnings back to the Commonwealth," spokesman Keith New tells Hanlon. For those not in the know, PHEAA earns money through phees from servicing and guaranteeing phederal student loans.

Forget June 30. That's so two weeks ago. The attention of the Capitol's political class is now focused on July 15. That's the day that a special Marcellus Shale study commission, led by Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, is scheduled to vote on recommendations on how to address the local infrastructure and environmental impact of Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry. The panel's final report, due to be released a week later on July 22, will presumably answer the one question that's been on the minds of political observers and policy-makers for months: Will the commission, which is top-heavy with industry interests, recommend that lawmakers pass a Marcellus Shale impact fee or severance tax? The short answer: Forget the severance tax. And if the commission wants to preserve a shred of its credibility, it will recommend an impact fee.

Gov. Tom Corbett visited a high-tech medical textile manufacturing company in Quakertown Monday morning to drive home the point behind his austere state budget.

His messsage, delivered wearing stylish paper shoe covers at Secant Medical's new ultra-clean facility: Pennsylvania's broke because of that free-spending Rendell guy that ran the place before I got here, and I'm not going to raise taxes in order to fill the bank account he depleted.

"I want to drive home a point--can you tell I was a teacher?--to you but to the media assembled," Corbett said to about a dozen Secant employees flanked by several TV cameras and gaggle of local reporters. "That is this: You can't keep spending what you do not have. Number one. And number two, when you get money like we got in the last two years from the federal government stimulus money and you use it to balance your budget for the state and that money goes away, you have two choices: you can either tax more to make up that almost $2 billion in stimulus money that is now missing, or you can cut your spending. I chose to cut spending."

In case that wasn't clear enough, he added: "There's been quite a lot of criticism of my budget. But we don't have the money."

And it sounds like it's not that easy to make ends meet on the governor's $174,914 salary either. Corbett said that he and his wife went out this weekend looking to buy a new TV for the second floor of the governor's mansion and settled for a DVD player instead because a new flat screen wasn't in the family budget.

"When you don't have the money, you have to stop spending don't you? I was out the other day looking to buy a new TV for the governor's residence for us to use in our upstairs. We didn't by a TV, we ended up buying a new VCR. And, er DVD, whatever. Not VCR. DVD. I know what I bought. Strike that. A new DVD. One, we wanted it, and we had some money to go out and buy it. I looked at these big beautiful flat screen TVs. Fifty inches. I really wanted one, but I don't have the money right now. We're not going to spend that money."

Talk about making sacrifices. Corbett's office says he turned down the $2,974 cost-of-living increase he was entitled to this year. That probably would have paid for a pretty nice flat screen. Guess he'll be watching the Final Four downstairs.

Good Afternoon, Everyone. And welcome to another installment of Pennsylvania's longest-running politics podcast.

Inside the program this week, you'll find talk about John Micek's adventures in cooking French food, Scott Detrow's exploits on the ice, and if we have the time, we might even squeeze in some discussion of this week's rules blow-up in the state House, school choice and legislative reform.

Regular listeners know the drill, you can listen live in your browser or download the program to your desktop for hours of hi-fi fun.

Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers. It's time for the Tuesday Title Competition. As always, we offer a cup of Joe from the Capitol cafeteria Starbuck's stand to the first intrepid Capitol Ideas reader to correctly identify the source material for the title of this morning's post.

A few ground rules: No fair sneaky using The Googles to dig up the info. The answers must come from your own feverish little brains. On-campus winners can claim their prize with prior arrangement. Off-campus winners get a gift certificate redeemable the next time they're in the Capitol.

And, of course, no part of this blog can be rebroadcasted, retransmitted or reproduced without the express written consent of Major League Baseball. Okay, let's dive right into the best and the rest of the day's headlines.

OK ... So That Was Fast.A scant 24 hours after Gov. Ed said there was nothing "definitive" about his signing with NBC as a political analyst, the suits at The Peacock Network have just put out this press release:"Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has been named NBC News political analyst. The announcement was made today by Steve Capus, President of NBC News, and is effective immediately. In this new role, Gov. Rendell, who has been a frequent guest on NBC News broadcasts for years, will contribute to NBC News and MSNBC. "Governor Rendell has never been afraid to share his thoughtful analysis on national and local issues and he couldn't be a better fit for NBC News," said Capus. "His extensive experience serving the people of Pennsylvania gives him a unique perspective and we're thrilled to have him on board." "I'm excited about this new opportunity with NBC because I believe our country faces critical challenges in the next two years," said Rendell. "The ability to have my voice heard and create an impact on the political discourse is exciting to me and is an extension of my continued commitment to public life." Rendell made his official debut at 8:15 a.m. with an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show.

Well, We Understand There's An Opening. It may not be "Countdown with Ed Rendell," but Politico reports this morning that the ex-Guv may soon join the network as early as this week

More astute readers may recall that Gov. Ed was a near constant presence on cable news chat shows in the run-up to last November's general election. Rendell the made (unpaid) rounds of MSNBC, Fox News and CNN. The difference this time -- he'd be picking up a paycheck.

The piece by blogger David Catanese also fills in some of the details about Rendell's life apres government that were already well-known.

In addition to serving as an MSNBC analyst for the 2012 Presidential Derby, Rendell is set to rejoin his old law firm of Ballard Spahr (shockah!) in Philly, for whom he made the rain fall during his eight years in the Governor's Mansion.

Rendell, who also worked for the firm from 2000 to 2002, says he'll focus his legal work on public-private parnterships, energy, higher education and health care -- all issues he made a priority while in Harrisburg.

Rendell tells Politco, he'll also serve as an unpaid adviser to such non-profit groups as the American Academy of Nurses and Building America's Future but also serve on boards of for-profit companies "that have laudable goals." And, as The Morning Call reported last week, he's also apparently lining up a gig with the Brookings Institution.

"I'm not going to be a lobbyist, though I will work with companies about the best avenues to pursue in Washington and in the state capitol and in city halls," he said.

And as if that weren't enough, Rendell will shore up his bottom line with speaking gigs and that book he's been working on.

Good Afternoon, Everyone.
Welcome back to another edition of Pennsylvania's First and Best State
Government Podcast (TM).

We're back after a week's lay-off that found John shakier than that kid who got tasered at the Philly game last night.

But we're making up for lost time. Inside, you'll find astute analysis of the latest poll numbers in the races for U.S. Senate and governor, insights into Pennsylvania's current budget predicament, and what can only be described as utterly inept impersonations of Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But because we are a full-service sort of pod, that's just how we roll. So join hosts John L. Micek, Alex Roarty and Scott Detrow for all the state news that you can cram into less than 30 minutes.

Regular listeners know the drill. You can listen live in your browser by clicking the player below or you can save it to your hard drive for listening fun on your home hi-fi or MP3 listening device.

Those Fun-Loving Kids ...
... at the Commonwealth Foundation found themselves in the crosshairs of MSNBC host Keith Olbermann this week for an event they're sponsoring in Lancaster County on May 8.

The group's sin (we mean this time)? Namely, setting up cars painted with slogans such as "Card Check," "Obamacare," and "Cap & Trade," that participants can blast away at merrily with their shotguns, pistols, and, for all we know, blunderbusses.

"Crowds are not expected to be large, because to shoot the correct cars, the tea party protesters would have to know how to read," Olbermann tartly observed. Though, if we know the cats at the Commonwealth Foundation, they're taking K.O.'s opprobrium as a badge of honor.

A Clash Of The ...
... Democratic gubernatorial candidates that Harrisburg-area public television views got their first gander on Wednesday will air in the Lehigh Valley tonight.

Candidates Dan Onorato, Anthony Williams, Joe Hoeffel and Jack Wagner will face-off at 7 p.m. on WDIY-TV Channel 39 in re-airing of a debate that saw the candidates exchange pointed barbs on issues ranging from government reform to funding for public education.

The format, which allowed the candidates to question each other, seemed designed to create conflict in a contest in which polls show most voters are paying scant attention six weeks before the May 18 primary.

The sniping came early when Williams, a state senator from Philadelphia, asked Onorato, the Allegheny County executive, to join him in a pledge to not award state contracts to people who had donated $1,000 or more to their campaigns.

Later, Williams traded blows with Hoeffel, a Montgomery County commissioner, over Williams' support for school choice.

While he's supported funding for public education in the past, Williams said he also believes parents have the right to send their children to the school of their choice and believes they should be able to take their tax dollars with them.

Hoeffel told the debate's moderator, WITF-TV anchor Nell McCormack-Abom, that he supports improving the existing public education system through more rigorous academic standards and remedial services.

The Democratic candidates are striving to distinguish themselves in the eyes of their own primary voters as time to campaign runs out.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, nearly half of Democratic primary voters (47 percent) said they still don't know enough about any of the candidates to make a decision. And of those who prefer a candidate, seven in 10 said they'll probably change their minds before they vote in May.

The debate was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.

Good Afternoon, Everyone. Welcome to yet another installment of Pennsylvania's Only State Government Podcast (TM).

This special Tuesday edition of Politics As Usual finds us taking on beer sales reform; Sen. Tony Williams' entrance to the Democratic gubernatorial primary; the special election for the late John Murtha's seat in Johnstown and whether there was too much curling on TV during this Olympics.

Those of you who are regular listeners know the drill, click on the player below to listen to John L. Micek of The Morning Call, Alex Roarty of PoliticsPA and Scott Detrow of Public Radio Capital News share their wisdom and analysis live in your browser. Or you can always save it to your desktop for some quality listening time later on.

Gov. Ed Hit The Rachel Maddow Show ...
... last night to talk about those 54 orphans he helped airlift out of Haiti. While he was there, he was also sounded out on the import of the Massachusetts Senate race.

It Seems Like Only Yesterday ...
... that Jim Gerlach was a dewy-eyed kid with $1 million, unnervingly perfect hair and a dream of running for governor.

Wait ... what's that you say? ... it was only yesterday? Good grief, it feels like we've been covering this story for a month.

But as we close the books on Jim Gerlach's gubernatorial candidacy and await what we're sure will be an equally madcap (in a dry, lawyer-ly kind of way) run for re-election in the 6th District, let's take a final look, shall we, at some of the more poignant moments from Gerlach's gubernatorial run.

The videos come courtesy of the YouTubes and our desire to keep ourselves amused while Little Miss Capitol Ideas watches ballet on the Tee-Vee.

The address before the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night will not only be used to announce the immediate order to deploy roughly 30,000 more troops, but the administration will also use the occasion to convey how it intends to turn the fight over to the Kabul government, the New York Times reported.

But the administration may also face an unforeseen enemy as it lays out its long-awaited plans. And they are loud and they are legion: We're talking about preschoolers and their parents.

This One's Taking Place Entirely ...
... entirely in the imagination of viewers of the ABC soap "One Life to Live," but the residents of Llanview, Pa., are being treated to a brutal mayoral contest between one Vicki Davidson and Dorian Cramer Lord.

"This race pits two progressive women against each other. Both have complicated histories with Davidson having suffered with multiple personalities and being the owner of one of the town's two newspapers and Lord having been the campaign manager for the previous mayor who's now in jail awaiting trial for running a drug ring in Llanview.

Same-sex marriage is a big issue in this race. While both candidates are in favor of it, Lord married her campaign manager in a mass symbolic same-sex marriage celebration this week and she promises to issue actual marriage licenses to the participants if she is elected. Long time watchers of Lord believe that she is heterosexual and her marriage is a campaign stunt."

Good Morning, Fellow Seekers.
We're comfortably ensconced here at Capitol Ideas World HQ, where we've just watched a NASA spacecraft hurtle headlong into the moon all in an effort to gain some additional ingots of knowledge about the universe.

While we are still of two minds as to whether this as a metaphor for what we do every day, we are most definitely relieved that the moon did not split in half, a laThundarr the Barbarian. And this is a relief -- because we have no desire to spend the rest of our days creeping around a post-apocalyptic landscape with a big, furry guy named Ookla the Mok:

See what we mean?

But that doesn't mean that there's still not a chance for some serious weirdness to happen today. This is Harrisburg, after all.

The Senate has a packed schedule today: The chamber is expected to vote on the main Frankenbudget bill, its version of table games and a fiscal code bill that includes state Sen. Pat Browne's, R-Lehigh, plan to create a legislative fiscal office.

The House may also vote on its own version of table games today and may vote on the fiscal code bill it amended yesterday to include a ban on state government money for the community group known as ACORN.

On the other hand, if the intelligence we were gathering last night was correct (and, God knows, we can always use more intelligence), the House and Senate might, by now, have reached agreement on a fiscal code bill. That means the Senate would send its bill to the House, which would then concur, and send the bill to Gov. Ed for his signature.

So what's all this mean to you?

It means that, sometime tonight, Gov. Ed might have a finished Frankenbudget to sign and lawmakers might be well on their way to legalizing table games at slot machine casinos. Thus ending this hyper-extended soap opera once and for all.

For those of you planning ahead, the House is scheduled to convene around 10 a.m. The Senate will start work around 11 a.m. -- just as Gov. Ed begins his briefing on how the state is spending its federal Stim money.

That's about it for now. Check back later today for more news and updates. You can register for live news alerts on our Twitter feed. We'll be providing live coverage of all of today's debate. That is, if we're not off fight evil with our trusty sidekicks Princess Ariel and Ookla the Mok.

It's A Well-Established Fact ...
... that the books a politician reads, the television shows they watch, and the music they enjoy will tell you as much about them as their position on property tax reform; health-care reform and other key issues of the day.

Cultural preferences speak to deep-seated character traits and beliefs. Having a shelf-load of Hemingway appeals to a person's masculinity -- or perhaps their insecurity over it. A few Kid Rock CDs in the player might mean, for instance, that the listener styles himself a beer-swilling, good old boy.

So while we waited yesterday for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato to arrive in Harrisburg's Riverfront Park for his long-anticipated gubernatorial campaign announcement, we decided to conduct a little experiment.

We wrote down the titles of the first seven songs that blared over the public address system before the event. We then took the list and sent it to longtime Capitol Ideas pen-pal Jim DeRogatis, the rock critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and a co-host of the syndicated "Sound Opinions" show on Chicago Public Radio.

We've been depending on Jim for years for his sound musical judgments. And more than once, he's hipped us to an artist lurking just beneath the radar. We've also sparred, on the phone, and via e-mail, over the work of such artists as R.E.M and former Husker Du and Sugar frontman Bob Mould.

Thus, we knew that Dr. DeRogatis could be relied upon to accurately psychoanalyze Onorato's musical picks and divine for us what they said about him as a person and politician.

Full-disclosure: Onorato and DeRogatis have not, as far as we know, ever met. And we're pretty sure Jim wouldn't know any of Onorato's policy positions. Heck, we're not even sure we know them and we do this for a living.

"I know nothing about Mr. Onorato's politics, but his musical choices couldn't be more conservative -- or boring.
"Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," well, there's just a hint of enormous hubris, isn't there? To say nothing of a sort of fascistic bent. "What I Like About You" -- "you
hold me tight"? And why should we care if he likes us; isn't it supposed
to be the other way around?Boyz II Men is just embarrassing, period.
Aside from choosing the rancid dance remix, Elvis' "A Little Less
Conversation" is hardly a good message for a would-be public
representative to put out there: He or she should be willing to talk
with and listen to each and every constituent.
"Life is a Highway" just invites bad jokes about speeding (or getting off at the wrong ramp), while telling us we "ain't seen nothin' yet," in addition to being an
example of bad grammar for Pennsylvania students, hardly instills a lot
of confidence. (If you haven't done much in public service to date, why
should we think you'll deliver more if elected now?)
Finally, U2 is just the hoariest of political cliches at this point -- certainly not an
example of the kind of fresh thinking so sorely needed in government."

We'll be putting the gubernatorial candidates' musical choices on the couch throughout the campaign. So you've, y'know, been warned ...

It's Kind Of A Big Day ...... here at Capitol Ideas World HQ. Around lunchtime today, we're going to indulge our inner fanboy and swing by Gov. Ed's press conference in the Main Rotunda where one of Philly's favorite sons, Bill Cosby, is going to be the featured speaker.

We're a Cosby fan from way back. As a child of the late 70s, early 80s, we spent Saturday mornings watching "Fat Albert," and wondering where Dumb Donald found a stocking cap big enough to cut eyeholes into.

In our adolescence, we discovered Cosby's legendary concert film, "Bill Cosby, Himself," and memorized his "Trip to the Dentist" routine.

We didn't have much use for "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, though, like many a red-blooded American teen, we did briefly go through a ... Lisa Bonet phase. But that, like our pair of artfully pegged Levis 501s, also passed.

In our 20s, we stumbled across "I, Spy," the mid-1960s espionage drama that starred Cosby and the actor Robert Culp. The series broke ground for a number of reasons -- not least because it featured one of the rare interracial pairings on prime-time television. That this came at the height of the civil rights movement made it even more significant. It also showed us a side to Cosby that we hadn't previously seen -- the dramatic actor.

So, you'll pardon us if we're more than a little geeked by the chance to check out The Cos in the flesh later today. Check back here for our dispatch from the event.

The Journalism Biz Loses Another One.Lisa Scullin, most recently a reporter for WHTM-27, an ABC affiliate in Harrisburg, has signed on as Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow's new press secretary, his office confirmed this afternoon.

The story found that Mellow had leased the office from himself, as well as his former wife and that the state shelled out more than $200,000 in rental payments over seven years.

According to Lepore, Scullin has served previous tours covering state goverment and politics in Maryland,
Delaware, and Virginia. She's also worked as a researcher and producer
for a cable network political news program based in Washington, D.C., he said.

Asked about the decision to take on a new staffer when tens of thousands of state employees are days away from partial pay-days, Lepore responded:

"We have a policy to only hire essential staffers and have decreased the
number of Democratic Caucus employees by 17 percent over 5 years time from 400
to 332. Until now, we have had a staff member doing double-duty, trying
to handle media responsibilities for the Senator in addition to
his full time job with the caucus," Lepore wrote.

This One's Hot Off The Presses ...... conservative scribe Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard will headline this Friday's PAGOP dinner at the
Harrisburg Hilton. For those of you playing along at home, Republican State Committee meets this weekend to endorse its slate of statewide judicial candidates.That's nearly as exciting as it sounds. So Friday's big dinner is at least an excuse to go into the Saturday business meeting with a screaming hangover.“I am excited to have such an esteemed speaker as
Fred Barnes provide the keynote address at our Fall Dinner (sic) this year,”
state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason said in a statement that probably contained words he once uttered more or less in order. “As the executive editor of The Weekly Standard and co-host of ‘The Beltway Boys,' Fred Barnes
possesses unique insights into the current political climate and the future of
the Republican Party,” Gleason concluded as he went off to hire a proofreader.Future of the Republican Party, eh? We'll resist jokes about it being a short speech ... oops ... too late.The dinner, which starts at 7 p.m., is usually televised by our good friends at the Pennsylvania Cable Network.Set your TiVo's, kids.

... actor Joe Pantoliano has no idea how Mafia soap The Sopranos will wrap up its final season.
The actor, who portrayed mobster Ralphie Cifaretto for 25 episodes from 2000 to 2004, was in the Capitol Rotunda this morning to speak on behalf of autism awareness."I don't know. I haven't been there for five years," Pantoliano with a laugh said as we caught him during a gap in the ceremony.Pantoliano looked remarkably spry as he told a packed audience that he'd first became aware of the tragedy of autism in his 40s, and was moved when he saw a film at Sundance documenting the life of a family with an autistic child."Autism is the most non-partisan disease I know," Pantoliano said. "It strikes everyone ... to have a child kidnapped [by the disease] is devastating."Pantoliano joked that he wants to play House Speaker Dennis M. O'Brien, R-Philadelphia, in a future movie. The shout-out came despite the fact that O'Brien somehow managed to mangle Joey Pants' name during his introduction, referring to him as "Joe Pantolioni."And, as a final note, we'll simple observe that, unlike Ralphie, Joey's noggin was squarely attached to his shoulders during Wednesday's appearance.